In the first primary following the end of the Great Recession, it’s all about jobs. The question on everyone’s mind is “how are the candidates going to quickly bring jobs to Michigan?” The candidates are pitching their plans and throwing out to see what will stick with voters. “What does this have to do with CADL, libraries, and the upcoming millage on August 3rd?” you say. This may surprise you, but jobs have everything to do with libraries.

Before the Internet exploded on the scene, job listings could be found by your father in the local newspaper or he could obtain a job by networking with his friends, colleagues, and relatives. Your aunt could just type up a simple resume on a typewriter and fill out a paper application with a pen. Today, there are so many avenues for obtaining a job. It can be very confusing. Job hunting can be very costly in a time where your cousin doesn’t have the financial means carry out a job search that involves postage, an Internet subscription, or a computer.

CADL supplies a computer, Internet access, and a printer. Your library also supplies books on making resumes and classes on how to use LinkedIn or Michigan Talent Bank. CADL even provides small business resources for those who want to create their own job and want to focus their attention on their entrepreneurial spirit. Ask a librarian, they can tell you where to start.

Can a candidate for governor supply resources better than this in the future? Perhaps, she or he can. The point is that CADL provides excellent job hunting resources now. You can educate yourself and make yourself the best available candidate for a job.

Grab the economy by the horns. Vote yes for the CADL millage renewal tomorrow. Oh, and tell your job seeker friends to vote Yes too!

Many people think that librarians are in the information business. But most librarians I talk to say they are in the people business. The inner workings of your community librarian are really pretty straightforward. We like to help people. We like to solve problems. We like to feel that we are making a positive difference in the lives of people who visit us.

The patron centered focus is apparent to anyone sitting near the information or computer area of a Capital Area District library. There is an institutional belief that our libraries perform a valuable public service and it resonates through each one of our branches. People visit the library for a variety of reasons from lap sit or toddler story time, research assistance, help navigating the internet, and sometimes just a need to be where other people are. Each person who visits the library, regardless of their reason, is the very reason that the library exists.

We want to thank each and every one of you who have stopped by a library desk in the past few weeks to tell us that you value the Capital Area District Library and support the August 3 millage renewal.  It is our pleasure to serve you and we look forward to continuing our mission (http://cadl.org/about) for many years to come. Talk to a friend (or two or three or…) about the value of the library in your community and ask them to vote this Tuesday!

With the millage vote just 4 days away, we’d like to state the facts one last time.

Fact: The Capital Area District Library is asking for a renewal of its operational millage.  The current millage is expired.  Without this renewal, the library will close on January 3, 2011. 

Fact: Nearly 90% of the library’s funding comes from this operational millage.

Fact: The millage renewal would be 1.56 mills for the next four years.

Fact: CADL has 13 branches and one book mobile which provide library services to all of Ingham county except for East Lansing.  These services include loaning books, CDs, DVDs, and other media, providing free computer and wifi access, staffing their libraries with friendly and knowledgable staff to make information more accessible, and providing a variety of program for children, teen and adults.

Fact: This issue is on the ballot Tuesday, August 3.  It is on the back sde of the ballot.

If you have additional questions, check out http://cadl.org/news/2010millage, or e-mail info@supportcadl.org.

This has been discussed before on this blog, but since its importance cannot be overrated, we would like to remind you to tell a friend about the CADL millage vote coming up on August 3!  There are many different ways you can do this.  Talk about the millage on Facebook.  Tweet about the library.  Send an e-mail to your contacts telling them about the vote and what the library means to you.  Even if these people don’t use the library regularly, they may remember that you do, when the time comes to vote.  Try this:  tell five people in the next week about the library, what it means to you, and that the millage vote is on August 3.  Make sure to let them know that this is not a tax increase, and that the library would have to close without the funds generated by this millage.  Do your part to help keep the library open, and tell a friend!

Ever since I can remember, I have had an abiding love for libraries.  As a young child, the library meant the slightly musty smell of the century-old building where I could explore as many books as my heart desired.  I had been an early reader, and the possibility of endless books, all filled with words and waiting on the shelf for me, was tantalizing and irresistible.

As I grew older, and moved towns, the library became a cramped space in a tiny room in City Hall, where the librarian would set aside books she thought I would love.  When the local government threatened to close that library because of budget shortfalls, my indignant fifth-grade self organized a petition, and got my fellow precocious bibliophiles to help me protest at the council meeting.  Needless to day, faced with a group of irate twelve-year-old book lovers, the council voted for the library to remain open.  Today they have expanded and moved to a beautiful new building, and information is easily available in that community.

Fast forward to college, where the library has long served as the traditional refuge for undergraduate English majors.  It was there that I discovered brilliant literary criticism to help me write papers, a small browsing collection to help me keep my sanity, and the fact that libraries were a place I couldn’t imagine living without. 

I have now made the library my career and life’s work.  I cannot fathom what would happen to our community without the amazing information libraries provide.  Where else would a child discover the wonder of words and worlds beyond her normal scope of life?  Where else could an elementary student learn the importance of advocacy and the necessity of having a voice?  What other building would shelter frazzled students in search of a quiet refuge?  And what other institution can provide information to every seeking mind, regardless of age, race, or economic status?  This is my library story.  I am certain each of you also has one of your own.  Please share it with everyone you know, and support your local library by voting for the millage on August 3.